TEXT: The Holy Gospel according to St. Luke 2: 1-14

(A personal note:  Last year I wrote two homilies for Christmas Mass at Dawn and Christmas Morning.  I did not consider this precious text that we read today.  Tonight, I sense the Lord has prepared me through Year C to consider this message from our Lord and Lady with tears of Joy that come from the angels whose voices I hear within my heart!  Praises to our God for this Glorious message we have today!)

Tonight I hear the words of a question from of St. John Vianney -- "Who could find it hard to persevere at the sight of a God who never commands us to do anything which he has not practiced himself?"

God became Immanuel . . . God with us.

God became Man, because God came down as very Man and very God to partake in our sufferings.  God has practiced the reality of being one of us!  I believe in the Incarnation of the Son of God.  I believe in the Word who became Flesh and dwelt amongst us and we beheld his glory as the Only Begotten of the Father!

Jesus was born into a real world with real world circumstances.

Jesus came to be with us, as one of us, when Caesar Augustus was on the throne.  A decree went out and Mary and Joseph were obliged to obey it.

1  In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that the whole world should be enrolled.
2 This was the first enrollment, when Quirinius was governor of Syria.
3 So all went to be enrolled, each to his own town.
4 And Joseph too went up from Galilee from the town of Nazareth to Judea, to the city of David that is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David,
5 to be enrolled with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child.

I believe this is a great example for you and me.

Mary and Joseph obeyed the laws of mankind.  Yes, surely, Mary and Joseph walked in holy faith in the words of God.  God spoke to them through the angel Gabriel and the angel of the Lord.  Great faith is shown by these two holy saints of God.  They do not ask God to deliver them from the requirements of Caesar, because they are the special chosen ones of God.  No, they are obedient to Caesar in the things that pertain to Caesar.

Thus, we ought to be as these two holy saints today, and so, retain the peace of those who are in power.  Perhaps, we too could bring the glory of the Salvation we know to the place of our service?

6 While they were there, the time came for her to have her child,
7 and she gave birth to her firstborn son.  She wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

How silently the Gift of God is given.

In the House of Bread, the Bread of Life is born.

"Invisible in his own nature he became visible in ours.  Beyond our grasp, he chose to come within our grasp.  Existing before time began, he began to exist in a moment of time.  Incapable of suffering as God, he did not refuse to be a man, capable of suffering.  Immortal, he chose to be subject to the laws of death."  ( Pope St. Leo the Great)

And, there in the place where the animals feed and sleep, Mary, the Mother of God gave birth to the Lord Jesus Christ.

I cannot help but weep, when I think of the beauty of this blessed Event of all events.

"Christ did not pass through the Virgin as through a channel, but truly took flesh and was truly fed with milk from her.  He truly ate as we eat and drank as we drink.  For if the incarnation was a figment then our salvation is a figment."  (St. Cyril of Jerusalem)

Yet, beloved, I am here to proclaim to you that Jesus was no figment.  Jesus means -- "Yahweh is Salvation."

Today is born our Savior Christ the Lord.

In the world, there was no room for the Christ Child and our Lady and the Patron saint of the Holy Catholic Church!  The world has little use for a Babe in a manger.  The world system has little use for a poor carpenter, and, a Lady with the fulness of grace that was that of Maria!

There was no room in the inn.  But, there was room in a stable, the place where the animals slept and ate.

Saint Clement of Rome said -- "Through Christ we see as in a mirror the spotless and excellent face of God."  Is it not interesting and lovely beyond our ability to think in rational and logical ways that God became Man and was born in a stable in Bethlehem, because Mary and Joseph were obeying the decree of Caesar Augustus?

But, how else would the poor of the land, the shepherds of Israel, ever have heard of the Messiah?  Did not Maria say, "et exaltavit humiles," "an he has exalted those of low degree."  There were few that were lower than the shepherds.  Yet, the "spotless and excellent face of God" was shown to these lowly shepherds first.

8  Now there were shepherds in that region living in the fields and keeping the night watch over their flock.
9 The angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were struck with great fear.
10 The angel said to them, "Do not be afraid; for behold, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.

Today, many are fearful about what man can do to them.

Many are fearful of God.

Yet, it was God who took the first step toward those of low degree to show Mercy.  God is Dives in misericordia.  God is rich in Mercy.  God is Mercy.

Why?

Because, it is God who keeps covenant... God who makes and keeps his promises.

11  For today in the city of David a savior has been born for you who is Messiah and Lord.

Little Bethlehem.  Why that little town?  That is God’s way is it not?  St. Catherine Laboure has said -- "I knew nothing; I was nothing.  For this reason God chose me."

Perhaps, this is why God chose Bethlehem.

And, yes, this is why God chose you and me.  I knew nothing; I was nothing.  For this reason God chose me.

Shall we not think God that Joseph and Mary took Jesus to be born in Bethlehem?

Shall we not also go to Bethlehem to meet Jesus?

Therese of Liseaux has said that, "the very moment God sees us fully convinced of our nothingness, he reaches out his hand to us."

Let us experience our own nothingness at Bethlehem this year.  Let us become like the humble, lowly, shepherds.  Then, only then, we shall see the face of God, "the spotless and excellent face of God," that St. Clement of Rome spoke of, beloved of Christ.

12 And this will be a sign for you: you will find an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger."

There, we too may identify with the Child in the manger.  May Jesus be born again within each of our hearts, as we come to behold him who is King of kings and Lord of lords.  He is Lord, "quia natus est vobis Salvator, qui est Christus Dominus," (V. 11), even as it was proclaimed by angels.

13 And suddenly there was a multitude of the heavenly host with the angel, praising God and saying:
14 "Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests."

That night, this night, as with all nights, the favor of God rests upon those who are like the Blessed Mother, Joseph, and the shepherds -- yes, all of the truly humble before God.

Yes, tonight, Jesus reaches out his hand to you and me.

May we follow him and meet him again in Bethlehem.



Deus et Sanctissima.